Small Sources 27. This rental of 63 tenants in the Dingle area of County Kerry is extracted from the Trant Papers in the National Library of Ireland collection. The Trant family were originally from this area of Co. Kerry but moved in the early 1800s to an estate in Dovea, Co. Tipperary (see below). They continued to own land in Kerry until the 1820s. Although rentals might appear to be purely business records, many contain rich family information. A full description of rental formats and practices, and on the useful family information they can provide is in our blog Rentals as a resource for Irish family history. This Trant list is valuable as there few other sources for this region at this time. The earliest Catholic records in the area are in Kilmalkedar (Ballyferriter) in 1807, while Dingle records do not start until 1825.
Information on the Trant family and their estates is in the Landed Estates Database, and also in another of our blogs on the Tipperary properties of the family. The 
tenant names listed below are extracted from several loose-page rentals relating to the Trant Kerry holdings in 1791/92: the NLI references to these items are Ms 31,561 Items 15 and Ms 31,561 Item 16. The Trant family also had holdings in several other counties at this time. The Kerry properties are indicated as then being the property of John Trant, a minor.
Most of the locations mentioned are townlands in civil parishes on the western end of the Dingle Peninsula, i.e. Kilmalkedar, Garfinny, Dingle and Ventry (all in the Barony of Corkaguiny). Others could not be identified with any certainty. The holding sizes are very varied, with rents varying from 10 shillings to 60 pounds. The names are almost all those associated with Kerry: (Mc) Carthy, Sheehy, Moriarty, Sullivan, Houlihan, Fitzgerald etc.). They include Sears (also Sayers) which is found only on this peninsula. It is interesting that several tenants have names that are usually associated with Tipperary (e.g. Gleeson, Fogarty, Dwyer, Slattery). As the Trant family also had estates in Tipperary, could there have been some movement of tenants between the two estates of the family?
Further information on some of these families may be available through our e-book title ‘Sources for Irish Family History 2021‘. It lists 6,500 books and articles written . The sources listed include books, journal articles and some other records written about specific Irish families. It provides access to a wealth of published information on about 2,500 Irish families
Flyleaf Press publish a comprehensive guide to research in this county ‘Finding your Ancestors in Kerry‘ – see cover illustration at left. It is written by Kay Cabal, a local historian and family history expert.
If you need help in following up on anything related to this source, or any other Irish research, please contact us and we will advise (free) as to what we might be able to do for you. Ancestor Network will also offer 1 free hour of research by a professional researcher to conduct further research on these individuals, or on other Kerry sources. We can also obtain images of the original documents. Click here and quote ‘Kerry SS27’ in the subject line.
The tenants are listed within the townland in which their holding was located. Further information on the location of each townland can be obtained at Townlands.ie (but only by using the currently accepted spelling of the townland name as shown below).
Rental to 1 May 1791 – Ms. 31,561 (15)
Ballycunneen (Now Ballycanneen; Civil Parish of Dingle)
Thos. Rice Esq.
Glynns (probably Glin North and Glin South; Civil Parish of Dingle)
Thos. Rice Esq.
James Moran
Dens. Carthy (i.e. Denis)
Danl. Carthy (i.e. Daniel)
Patt Long
Owen Sheehy
Mr M Moriarty
Ballyristeen (now Ballyrishteen; Civil parish of Dingle)
Reps. Ms. T Barry
Ballybowler (Civil parish of Garfinny)
Michl. Fienughty (Usually spelt Fenaghty and anglicised as ‘Fenton’ which is common in Kerry)
Andrew Fienughty
Jno. Moriarty (i.e. John)
Michl. Moriarty
Owen Moriarty
Danl. Cahill
Widow Sullivan
Simon Huolihan
Patt Sullivan
Cornelius Kenedy
Ballyeightra (Civil parish of Dingle)
Jno. Huolihan (usually spelt Houlihan)
Willm. Huolihan
Jno. Lacey
Jno. Brian (spelled Bryan on one list)
Widow Huolihan
Jno. Collins
Darby Slattery (spelled Derby on one list)
Cornelius Leehy
Jno. Landers
Ballynana (Civil parish of Kilmalkedar)
Robert Sears
Reprs. N. Fitzgerald
John Lovat
Roger Kenedy
Denis Connell
Coumgah (Now Coumgagh; Civil parish of Kilmalkedar)
John Duvane (usually spelt Devane)
Edmund Lynch
Killahara
Cahil Connor
Cleary Cormick
Anthony Gleson
Anthony Fogarty
Connor Dwyer
Ullaha (Now Ullagha; Civil parish of Kilmalkedar)
Ignatius Moriarty
Ballybeg (There are two possible Ballybegs; one in Civil parish of Ventry, and one in Dingle )
Reprs. R Fitzgerald
Rahinane (Now Rahinnane; Civil parish of Ventry)
Ellin Fitzgerald
Daniel Hannifen (usually spelled Hanafin)
Andrew Huolihan
Darby Scanlon
John Lovat
Andrew Sears
John Hannifen
West Rahinane (Now West Rahinnane; Civil parish of Ventry)
Tim Moriarty
Ballymacdoyle (Civil parish of Dingle)
Mr Forhan
John Sheehy
Tim Dovane
Balleightra (Civil parish of Dingle)
Michael Dovane
Cahirtrant (Now Caheratrant; Civil parish of Ventry)
Thomas Moriarty
Cahirtrant Ballybeg
Michael Scanlon
Rental to 1 May 1972 – Ms. 31,561 (16)
Farencantillan (Now Farrancantillon; Civil parish of Dingle)
Mary Finn
Darby Cavanah (usually spelt Kavanagh)
T. Moriarty
Constantine Moriarty
Thomas Greay
Patt Trant
John Keran
Matt Moriarty
The images were created by Ancestor Network and are reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland. Ancestor Network conducts research on all Irish family history sources and archives. If you need help in following up on anything related to this source, or any other Irish research, you can outline your requirements here and we will let you know what we might be able to do for you.
Further General and Kerry articles in our series on Irish Family History sources include:
- Petty Sessions– the records of local courts
- Catholic Church records
- Grand Jury Presentments – records of local councils on payments for public works and staff
- Rentals – management of tenants by estates and the records created
- Middle names – the use (or non-use) of second or middle names in Irish records
- How comprehensive are Irish Civil Records?
- Census returns in Gaelic or Irish language
- 70+ blogs with names extracted from manuscript sources from many counties. A handy map index to these is available here.
Kerry Articles
